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A SERMON, 



PEEACHED ON THE OCCASION OF THE DEATH 



GENERAL TAYLOR, 



LATE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



BY THE 



REV. D. MAGIE, D. D. 



DEDICATED TO HIS PEOPLE. 

AT THE REQUEST OF SOME OF WHOM IT IS NOW PUBLISHED, SLIGHTLY CHANGED 
AND ENLARGED SINCE ITS DELIVERY. 



NEW-YORK : 
JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER, 49, 51 &. 53 ANN-STREET 

M.DCCC.L. 



i'. 



V" 



.^' 



SERMON. 



^IiCAH vi., 9. — The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and tlie man of wis- 
dom shall see thy name; hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it. 

True patriotism, scarcely less tlian sound piety, will lead 
us to mark the footsteps of tlie Almighty in great public 
events. We are not only servants of the Most High God, but 
citizens of a free and favored land ; and as such are bound to 
take a lively interest in whatever concerns the common wel- 
fare. Any thing that stirs the sensibilities of the country, and 
plunges the nation into grief, may well be made the theme of 
pulpit inquiry and address. 

We all feel that it would be criminal to suffer so instruc- 
tive a calamity as that which has recently befallen us, to pass 
without notice. Our beloved Chief Magistrate, honored and 
revered even more for his noble personal qualities than for the 
high military and civil stations he held, has been suddenly 
cut off from the land of the living and laid low in the dust. 
While office was still new to him, and the laurel unfaded on 
his brow, the destroyer came to do his allotted Avojk. The 
country is in tears, and the speaker but falls in with the 
sorrowful emotions of a whole bereaved people, when he seeks 
to turn the general lamentation into a useful channel. A sub- 
ject is assigned us, and all we have to do is to illustrate and 
apply it as best we can. 

God himself is speaking, and it becomes us all, high and 
low, rich and poor, to stand in awe, and keep silence before him. 
His voice cries to the metropolis of the land, and through that, 



as a common centre, sends out its notes of warning and in- 
struction to every city, town, and village, in our widely ex- 
tended Union. And we sliall be wanting to ourselves, as well 
as wanting in respect for the memory of a great man, if our 
ears 'are not open and our liearts attentive. 

This is an event so serious in its nature, and so far-reaching 
in its influence, as deeply to impress every thoughtful mind. 
No one could be taken from a position so elevated — the in- 
cumbent of an office in comparison with which titles and 
crowns are but gewgaws — without making a breach ; and, 
least of all, could such a man as Zachary Taylor. Well may 
we exclaim : How are the mighty fallen ! and how is the glory 
of the land perished in its high places ! It would argue a cri- 
minal disregard to the operation of God's hands, not to pause 
and reflect on so unlooked-for and portentous an event. We 
must not be so stunned and confounded by the blow, as to 
fail to inquire into the reasons for its having been inflicted. 

The mere political aspects of this affecting providence will 
be left, as of right they should be, to other lips and other occa- 
sions. But there are two points which may well claim atten- 
tion liere : ^Yhy is the late calamity to he regarded as the voice of 
the Lord f and tvhat are some of the lessons it seems intended to en- 
force? These topics fall within the legitimate scope of the 
preacher, and it will be his effort to treat them in a way befit- 
ting the place and the day. 

I. 'Why are toe to regard the visitation^ over ivhich the land 
mouryis^ as the voice of the Lord? 

That the Almighty has been speaking, and speaking with 
unusual emphasis, no one has the hardihood to deny. — ■ 
The event came like a clap of thunder in a cloudless sky ; 
and as the tidings spread, with the speed of the lightning's 
flash, from one end of the country to the other, it seemed like 
the utterance of Deity himself Senators rose in their place 
acknowledging the hand of God, and expressing the hope that 
we might still be borne onward and upward by the wings 
of his kind providence. The representatives of the people 
were for the moment awed into sobriety, and freely admitted 



that God had tahen from us him on Avhom our hearts were 
fixed in the hour of peril Ahnost every press, secular as 
well as religious, responded to the general sentiment : surely, 
this is the finger of God. 

Never before, since the organization of our government 
except on a single occasion, had such an event befallen us. 
The brave and gentle Harrison, of whom the country enter- 
tained the most sanguine expectations, and whose elevation 
to the Presidency was hailed by a universal thrill of joy, 
was called to surrender the staff of office while it was still fresh 
in his hand. One short month was all that was allotted him 
for the occupancy of his high seat before he was cast down 
into the dust of death. Hardly had the sound of rejoicing 
ceased at his unparalleled success, ere news reached us which 
disappointed our fond hopes, and turned a nation's gladness 
into grief This was then a novel event in the country's an- 
nals. But he who looketh upon the mountains and they melt, 
and who toucheth the hills and they smoke, has come forth 
again from his secret places to break the pride of our power. 
For the second time, since Washington occupied the great 
chair of state, has that chair been shrouded in the vesture of 
the tomb. 

Ordinary occurrences, though equally under the control of 
Divine Providence, do not thus affect us. We can see the 
foliage of our shrubbery scattered over the ground, and the 
limbs of our fruit-trees twisted and broken, without any very 
deep impression of the force of the wind. But not so when 
the mighty oak, the giant of the forest, is uprooted from 
its hidden fastnesses, and lies prostrate on the eartli. Here is 
something which tells us with what majestic power the tem- 
pest moves. Thus it is in the present instance. Calamities 
which are scarcely noticed, when confined to the humble and 
obscure, are found to arouse attention, and awaken solicitude, 
when they crush the hopes of a country. 

It would seem as if God had resolved that men, willing or 
unwilling, should see and should acknowledge his uplifted 
hand. Death has of late been riding on his pale horse through 
the capital of the land ; and I need not tell you how nuiny 



6 

sliiuiug victims lie lias selected among our gi'eat men before lie 
ventured to strike this last, tliis most fearful blow. No won- 
der that levity puts on an aspect of seriousness, and that semi- 
unbelievers are compelled to admit that this is the voice of the 
Lord. How could it be otherwise, when the reasons for thus 
thinking are so obvious and striking? 

To be convinced of this, look at the elevated -position of the 
man who has just been cut down as the grass, and withered as 
the green herb. That such an event, connected with exalted 
station and commanding influence, should affect us more 
deeply than a similar calamity in private life, is agreeable to 
the dictates both of reason and of Scriptu.re. It is no symbol of 
unmanly adulation, nor cringing before honor and office, for 
the nation to bow its head and weep at a time like this. The 
catastrophe, stripped of its appendages, is indeed just such an 
one as is daily happening to multitudes of families in the land. 
It is no new thing for a husband to lie on the bed of death, with 
a fond wife kneeling in anguish at his side, or for a father to 
call his children in and give them his parting benediction. 
Scenes of this sort are familiar to the eye of afflicted humanity 
the world over. 

We have all visited sick chambers, and seen dying couches, 
and walked in funeral processions. These are no strange 
things in a world into which sin early entered, and where 
death has been following in its train, from generation to gene- 
ration. " The last of earth" is reached in cottages as well as 
mansions. 

But in the more retired walks of life, these distressing 
incidents are confined to a small circle. If the grief be 
equally sincere and deep, it cannot be so general. The hopes 
of a family are crushed, and the happiness of a domestic 
group is destroyed, but no sensation is awakened through the 
land, no shock is given to the machinery of the social system. 
Surrounding waters soon fill the cavity made by the plough- 
ing keel, and all is level and smooth again. But the case is 
different when death arrests one, on whom the eyes of 
twenty millions of freemen are fixed, and who exerts an influ- 
ence for weal or for woe over half a continent. When such 



a man falls, suddenly and unexpectedly, we can liardly lielp 
feeling, that in his fall we hear the voice of the Lord, power- 
ful and full of majesty. I trust in God it may not be a pre- 
lude to thunderings and lightnings and tempests. 

Again, reflect for a moment on the rare pe7^sonal qualities 
of the individual who has thus disappeared from among men. 
It is not easy to give the character of General Taylor in a 
single sentence, but all who have had the privilege of access 
to him agree in the testimony, that he was emphatically one 
of nature's noblemen. There was nothing showy, nothing 
vapoury, nothing pretending about him. Plain in his man- 
ners, honest and earnest in his principles, and simple in the 
workings of his mind, his was very naturally the reputation 
of an actor rather than a talker. Only give him something 
to do ; let dif&cult work be set before him ; place him in 
trying circumstances, and he was sure to equal the greatest 
emergency. Never did he disappoint the hopes of his friends 
— never did he fail to overmatch the efforts of his enemies. 
Washington was not eloquent — Franklin never made a long 
speech. 

This man is called a successful hero, and so he was. But 
what under God made him successful? It was just that com- 
bination of solid qualities, leading him to do more than he 
said, to perform more than he promised, which would have 
fitted him, and did actually fit him, for any position of diffi- 
culty and responsibility. Half his worth is not seen when we 
contemplate him as a star of hope on the battle-field. We 
are not permitted to pry into faturity, but time may yet de- 
cide that his counsels in the Cabinet embrace the great prin- 
ciples on which the questions now agitating the land, must 
be settled, if settled at all. I must say, the more I study his 
character the more I admire it. Others may excel him in 
individual traits, biit take him as a whole, the tout ensemble 
of the man, the entire grouping of the parts, he stands second 
only to Washington himself. 

How illy could such a man be spared in this frivolous, 
wordy, speech-making age ? We needed, at the present crisis, 
just such a pilot at the helm, one who could keep quiet while 



others made a noise, and wliose silent, calm, and self-reliant 
course, should be a perpetual rebuke to the everlasting talkers 
of the day. Chosen to his high office for valuable, more than 
for shining qualities, he went steadfastly on to the very last. 
The crowning trait of his character was good common sense — 
not common because so many possess it, or because we see it 
so commonly exercised — but common because it applies to 
ordinary trials and duties. This he had, and it fitted him to 
run his noble race. This raised him above his compeers, 
and fixed his seat as chief among the mighty. That a man 
so gifted of God, and so qualified to be useful, should be thus 
smitten down with all his blushing honors thick upon him, is 
for a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation. If there is 
no voice of the Lord here, he never speaks to men. 

Then consider, too, that Taylor has died at the very junc- 
ture when his presence and the poioer of his fair name seem to 
he most needed. It is no business of mine, be assured, to sound 
an unnecessary alarm in the ears of the people, and the man 
who does it for selfish and sectional piirposes, ought to be re- 
garded as traitorous to his country's welfare. Still it is im- 
possible to shut our eyes upon the fact, that we have arrived 
at a critical point in the history of the nation. Never have 
the clouds gathered over our heads more portentously, and 
never have the hearts of the people been more fearfully agi- 
tated. In such a day who can say how much the prestige 
of the well-earned laurels of the brave General might have 
stood us in stead, as well as the cool sagacity and clear-sighted 
perceptions of the beloved man? We all felt that while one 
so honest, so upright, and so fearless, was at the head of 
afl'airs, threats of disunion were very likely to prove as idle 
tales. His very name was a tower of strength. His strong 
hand would have struck down any party flag. 

The principle of rewarding military exploits with civil 
and political honors, is perhaps never a sound, or a safe one. 
Yet cases may occur in which courage and good generalship 
on the battle-field, shall turn the attention of the nation to a 
man who possesses every requisite for high station in the 
Government, and whose strong qualities, matured and de- 



veloped in a former line of tilings, shall now be turned to a 
still more exalted purpose. What the keen eye and firm 
arm of such a one might be worth, none can tell. 

Alas, that it should have pleased the Euler of the Uni- 
verse to select such a moment for the striking of such a 
stroke ! We needed now more than ever before the tried 
integrity, the immovable self-possession, and the unshaken 
resolve of just this man to steady the ship of state, and guide 
her into quiet waters. And to see the staff on which we 
leaned thus suddenly broken, is surely adapted to open our 
ears to the voice of the Lord. Happy, thrice happy, will it 
be if, in the loss of human help and confidence, we are only 
the more led to make the Most High our refuge and strength. 
Thus improved, the recent dispensation — though not joyous 
for the present, but grievous — will be sure to work out for us 
the peaceable fruits of righteousness. This opens the way to 
inquire, 

II. What special lessoiis this voice of the Lord ivas intended to 
give and enforce ? 

That there is a deep meaning in the event, just happened, 
there can be no doubt. I pretend not to predict its influence 
on the adjustment of those questions, which have now for 
months been shaking the nation, like the leaves of the 
forest. On a point like this, it hardly belongs to the speaker 
to hazard a conjecture. It will be allowed him, however, to 
express the hope, which has never entirely deserted his 
bosom, that by the blessing of God, all will come out right at 
last. This land, I fondly trust, is destined to be a beacon-light 
to a bestormed and bewildered world, for ages to come. 

It is encouraging to turn to one delightful fact, which 
serves to show how deeply the love of our institutions is 
imbedded in the hearts of the American people. In an 
hour of intense political agitation, the President dies, and 
the news sounds out into all the land, that the chair of 
State is vacant; but there is no commotion, no rising to 
obstruct the wheels of government, no note of treason to 
the working of the Constitution. Business goes on as before. 
Stocks maintain their price. If any thing can attach us to 



10 

the land in which our lot is cast, and inspire us with a 
feeling of security, under the aegis of liberty here spread 
out, it is a sublime sj^ectacle like this. Where besides could 
power change hands so quietly, and with so little excitement ? 

The language of my heart, I must say, is, — My country, 
with all thy faults, I love thee still. Not only as an American 
citizen, but as a philanthroj^ist and a Christian, I will seek 
thy good. For my brethren and my companions' sakes, I 
will yet say, peace be within thee. If I forget thee, O land 
of my fathers' sepulchres, let my right hand forget her 
cunning, and let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, 
if I prefer not thy welfare to my chief joy. Still the late 
Providence is full of admonitory lessons. 

We ought to regard it, it strikes me, as a timely and severe 
rebuke on the party spirit of the country. It might have been 
supposed, that such a man as Taylor, coming into ofl&ce by 
the unsolicited favor of the people, and carrying himself so 
quietly and unoftendingly, would have been permitted to 
pass along untouched of scandal. But knowing what we do 
of poor human nature — this was too much to expect. The 
bloody Moloch must have victims, and the nobler the better. 
No purity of private character, no splendor of public service, 
no urbanity of social intercourse, and no wisdom of general 
measures, could shield the head of the venerable man, and 
save him from the pang of bitter opposition. It was not 
enough that he had no enemies to punish, and no friends to 
reward. He must drink his share of the same bitter cup, 
which is put to the lips of all who prefer jDublic usefulness to 
private ease. 

Mistake me not. I do not lose sight of the fact that, " the 
price of liberty is eternal vigilance." Every man, even the 
humblest in the land, has a perfect right to scan the measures 
of the Administration, and to utter his objections, if he has 
any, in clear and distinct tones ; but never is he to forget that 
government is of God, and that those who conduct it are 
God's ministers. To oppose the chief magistrate, simply 
because he was not the man of our choice, and to wage 
relentless war against him for no better reason than that 



11 

we slioiild have jjref erred anotlier, is baseness itself. An 
American citizen ought to blush at such a course. And yet, 
who does not know that the efforts of multitudes, both in 
Congress and out of it, to clog the wheels of Government, and 
harass the Executive of the nation, have their origin in no 
better motive than this ? 

No wonder that crowns of earthly glory, so generally 
prove to be crowns of thorns; 

This, if I misjudge not, is the giant sin of the land, and 
God is here rebuking it in tones of thunder. Oh, it were 
easier, a thousand times easier, for a man of brave heart, and 
firm resolve, to stand unmoved on the battle-plains of Mexico, 
than be surrounded with the brightest civic honors, and at 
the same time find his measures opposed, and his best efforts 
to uphold the Constitution of the country, set at nought. One 
is the severe pelting of an hour's storm — the other, the driz- 
zling of a tedious day. 

How impressively, too, does this event exhibit the folly of 
trusting in man, and making flesh our arm ? A voice issues 
from that spacious East room, now hung in mourning, and 
filled with weepers ; crying in the ears of the nation — " Cease 
ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he 
to be accounted of" There stands the hero of many a well 
fought field, bending over his old companion in arms, and 
thinking of an enemy who triumphs over all military prowess, 
and laughs at the edge of the sword. Great men and honor- 
able men are there ; sage counsellors, and eloquent orators, 
officers of State, and ambassadors from other lands, all 
gathered to witness the triumphs of the destroyer, and to 
testify their respect by silence and sorrow. The cof&n, the 
shroud, and the funeral pall, afiix the mark of vanity to 
human distinctions every where, but they do it with a sort of 
emphasis, in the dwelling of the chief magistrate of a mighty 
nation. While we looked for good, behold evil came down, 
even unto the gates of Jerusalem. 

Shall we ever again hang the glory and safety of our 
beloved country, upon the frail arm of man ? We learn from 
the black, lines, which separate the columns of every news- 



12 

jiaper — the tolling bells of every town and village, and the 
traces of thonght and solicitude drawn on every individual 
countenance, that a great man has fallen. How suddenly are 
mansions of joy turned into abodes of sadness, and halls of 
mirth filled with lamentation ! This was death's demonstra- 
tion of human impotence, made by stalking in triumph over 
the pride and confidence of an afflicted nation. Scenes like 
these give force to the declarations of Holy Writ. Happy is 
he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, and whose hope is 
in the Lord his God, that made heaven and earth, and by his 
strength setteth fast the mountains, being girded with power. 
It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man, 
yea, it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in 
princes. 

The successful military chieftain and the high civil func- 
tionary, are akin to ourselves in all the sensibilities of a 
common nature, and all the frailty of a common inheritance. 
Where is the waving plume noAV, and the prancing steed, and 
the stern word of command ? Where now is the patronage 
of power, and the petition of the office-seeker, and the recep- 
tion of foreign embassies ? Death has passed along, and with 
a single touch of his mighty hand has turned the brightness 
of all this glory into the gloom of the grave. 

We have then only to say farther — how loudly does this 
event proclaim the folly of human ambition. In five short days 
we see a man wdio had attained the very summit of earthly 
renown, with a fame as wide as the civilized world, and the 
fair prospect of years to come, reduced to the weakness of an 
infant and brought down to the shades of death. Ah — where 
is all that which we call grandeur, and power, and glory, 
now ? AVe look about us, as the immense crowd moves slowly 
on ; but instead of shouts of joy, we listen to the funeral 
dirge ; and in place of merriment and gayety, we behold the 
bier and the urn. Is this all that is left of the honor which 
Cometh from man only ? Must the brave Taylor sicken and 
die ; and his wife be made a widow ; and his children father- 
less, like the humblest and poorest of us all ? 

I must say, that nothing has seemed to me to pour such 



13 

contempt on the brightest visions of earthly glory, as to read 
of these bitter tears, and this heartfelt sorrow, in the palace 
of the nation. The soul, true to its native instincts, quails and 
trembles in mansions as well as in cottages. Conventional forms 
must now give place to life's stern realities ; and high official 
men be beckoned from the bedside to make room for the weep- 
ing wife, and let the children in to get their father's blessing. 
This gives it the character of an ordinary domestic visitation. 
We return from the contemplation of such a scene, more 
deeply convinced than ever, that the brightest honors of this 
world are as nothing, when compared with that glory which 
a man can carry with him into eternity. 

0, when shall we learn that there are better and more 
enduring blessings, than can be won by valor, or purchased 
by talent ? There are moments common to us all, when we 
are forced to admit, that the Gospel and the Christian's hope 
are the only possessions of permanent value. The wants of 
the stricken bosom cannot be met, even in the high places of 
the land, without bringing in the Bible and calling for the 
ministers of religion, and listening to the words of eternal life, 
Eich and poor come together here as jjossessors of a common 
nature, and subject to a common destiny. The most power- 
ful ruler that ever swayed a sceptre, needs to hear of Jesus 
and the resurrection, on the bed of death, just as much as 
does the humblest individual in his empire. All are involved 
alike in the effects of the apostasy, and all must participate 
alike in the benefits of redemption. 

But I forbear. We have been listening to that voice 
which breaketh the cedars of Lebanon and shaketh the wil- 
derness of Kadish, and find that it inculcates upon us, as 
individuals and as a nation, lessons of the deepest interest. 
If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. 

Every thing, as it respects the obsequies of the illustrious 
dead, has been wisely and considerately done. Distinguished 
men, both in Congress and out of it, have vied with each 
other in depicting his high character ; and the nation at large 
has been prompt to pay the proper homage to his memory. 
So far all is well. But what we should desire, above every 



14 

thing besides, is that the death of our beloved President may- 
be folloAved with an increase of harmony in our national 
councils, and an increase of dispatch in our public business. 
If this shall be the happy result, the boon is not purchased at 
too dear a rate. The life of no man in the land is for a mo- 
ment to be compared with the prosperity and perpetuity of 
our glorious Union, indivisible and for ever. Let it be our 
earnest prayer, that this event may tend to close the opening 
chasm, and smooth our way onward. 

We could afford to part with the honest and venerated 
Taylor, highly as we prized him, and dear as he was to the 
hearts of thousands, were his death to be made the means of 
hushing the elements of political discord, and bringing the 
North and South — as in the younger days of the republic — to 
feel that they are brethren. Alas, here is our chief danger. 
I shall hardly be accused of any such speaking evil of digni- 
ties, as the Bible condemns, if I say that what we want now, 
is a certain largeness of heart, which would lead our public 
men to forget neighborhood, and section, and party, and 
legislate for the entire land. Our history hitherto has been 
one of compromise and concession. So it must continue, if 
we would not have its latter pages written in blood. That 
man will live in the remembrance of a grateful nation, who 
is willing, at the present crisis, to risk his reputation, and 
grieve his friends, and go against his party, and lose his 
place — if he may but consolidate the union of these happy 
States. 

How will such a name stand on the historic page when 
contrasted with that of the reckless disunionist? 0, if come 
the sad hour ever must, when this glorious confederacy shall 
be broken into atoms, and this lone star of the world's hope 
shall be shrouded in darkness, we will hold to a fearful account- 
ability one single man who dares to perpetrate the suicidal 
deed. Posterity will call that man a second Arnold, and will 
af&x to him an ignominious memorial. 

But I hope better things, though I thus sj^eak. When I 
think of the early providential settlement of this country — 
when I trace the numerous tokens of God's favor to us in an 



15 

infant state — wlien I consider the elevated position whicli it 
has been given to this land to hold in the great benevolent 
movements of the age — and especially when I advert to the 
fact that there are so many Noahs, Jobs, and Daniels, scattered 
through these valleys and over these hills, I cannot but hope 
that God has rich mercies in store for us yet. We may be 
chastised for our sins, but we shall not be cut off for ever. 

Christian citizens ! much depends on you. Give no coun- 
tenance to the suspicion that your place in the house of God, 
and your hopes for the world to come, are operating to render 
you indifferent to your country's welfare. Show, by your 
active efforts to elevate good men and true, and by your cheer- 
ful submission to the powers that be, that you love the land 
of your fathers' sepulchres. Above all, daily carry the pros- 
perity of these United States with you to the mercy-seat, and 
intercede for blessings on their behalf which shall reach to the 
utmost bounds of the everlasting hills. 

I suggest only one thing more. Taylor is gone, and his 
place is filled by a man who comes into it by the providence 
of God, rather than by the direct act of the people. On this ac- 
count he all the more needs your sympathy and your aid. Eal- 
ly round him from the very first, and give to every sound mea- 
sure he proposes a cheerful and warm-hearted support. Eaised 
up himself from the humbler walks of life, and rocked in his 
early days in a rough cradle, he comes before us emphatically 
as a man of the people. Let him have a fair trial. 

We cannot better close than by adopting, with slight vari- 
ations, the language of a great and good man, on a somewhat 
similar occasion. Though under the mournful remembrance 
of our departed President, we cannot but feel, at this season 
of many tears, as if a volley of lightning had been shot at the 
pillar of our Eepublic, yet if we strengthen its foundation in 
the principles and character of the people, the pillar will stand 
on the deep and steady basis of a country's virtue, and can 
never be overthrown. Thus an enduring memorial of the la- 
mented man will be embalmed in the hearts of the people, and 
permanent good will emerge out of this dark and bitter dis- 
pensation. 



mim A iOL 






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